SCCM Monitoring Scenarios in SCOM

Few weeks back we were informed that one of our clients are going to Insource their SCCM Infrastructe Operations and wants the monitoring to be configured through SCOM.

They also wanted to know the monitoring scenarios which SCOM can cover for the System Center Configuration Manager so they can decide whether the monitoring needs to be done through their existing tool or SCOM.

Believe me, if you are going to monitor any Microsoft application or infrastructure, you can choose SCOM as the monitoring solution without a second thought as Microsoft provides a wide range of Management Packs for their products through which we can do comprehensive monitoring following best practices through SCOM. In a nut shell, Microsoft knows what to monitor for their products and how.

The following table describes the key monitoring scenarios that the Monitoring Pack for Configuration Manager enables:

Availability is monitored for the following components. These components generate a periodic heartbeat that reports their availability state:

· Inbox Manager

· Inbox Monitor

· Site Component Manager

· Management Point Control Manager

· File Dispatch Manager

· Outbox Monitor

· WAKEONLAN Manager

· WSUS Configuration Manager

· WSUS Synchronization Manager

· WSUS Control Manager

· Component Status Summarizer

· Site System Status Summarizer

· Component Monitor

· Deployment Status Summarizer

Service availability

Monitors the availability of Configuration Manager services by using both the Service Availability feature of System Center 2012 Operations Manager or later version; and the Service Control Manager events in the NT Event System Log. Service availability monitoring generates the following:

· An alert when Configuration Manager-based services stop on Configuration Manager site systems.

· An alert when a critical Configuration Manager dependent service, such as Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), stops or fails to start on Configuration Manager site systems.

· An alert when other Configuration Manager dependent services, such as Microsoft SQL Server, Internet Information Services (IIS), and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) stop or fail to start on Configuration Manager site systems.

· An alert when the Configuration Manager Site Backup service is started and stopped, so you can monitor backup durations and correlate stop events from other Configuration Manager services to Configuration Manager Site Backup.

Server Role Availability Monitoring

Availability is monitored for the following roles:

· Asset Intelligence Synchronization Point

· Out of Band Service Point

· Management Point

· Enrollment Point

· Enrollment Proxy Point

· Fallback Status Point

· Reporting Service Point

· System Health Validator

· State Migration Point

· Software Update Point

· Distribution Point

· Application Catalog Web Service Point

· Application Catalog Website Point

· Endpoint Protection Point

· Client Notification Server

Compliance Rate of Baseline Deployment monitoring

The compliance rate of the deployment of baseline deployment checks the rate against the defined threshold.

Discovery Backlog monitoring

Discovery Backlog monitoring checks the backlog of the inbox on the site server.

General Health Monitoring

General health monitoring generates an alert when a health metric on a Configuration Manager server is above a certain threshold over a period of time. General health monitoring checks the following metrics:

Processor Time at 95% over 3 hours for:

· Smsexec

· Ccmexec

· Total

Database Connection Monitoring

Monitors that the database connections are valid.

Inventory Backlog Monitoring

Monitors backlogs and outbox conditions.

Software Metering Backlog Monitoring

Checks the status of software metering.

Software Update Synchronization Status Monitoring

Checks whether software update synchronization is occurring.

Distribution Point Configuration Monitoring

Checks whether the Distribution point is properly configured for connections.

Forward the Configuration Manager in-console alerts

Checks the status of Configuration Manager in-console alerts, generates Operations Manager alerts when the corresponding Configuration Manager alerts are active. These monitors are disabled by default.

Microsoft Intune Connector

Checks whether the Intune Connector is properly configured and when the Intune Serivce can’t be reached.

Since the System Center Configuration Management Pack for SCOM is easily available, it was not a problem for us to integrate their SCCM infrastructure with SCOM.

SCCM application is dependent upon other components as well. For Example:

Operating System – On which SCCM application is running.

SQL Server – Holding SCCM database.

SCCM Infrastructure hardware and Storage.

So, along with comprehensive application monitoring, above mentioned components are equally important and needs to be monitored in SCOM.

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About Me

My name is Shashi Bhushan and I have been in Information Technology for over 11+ years having expertise in ITSM, Cloud and Monitoring Tools with a strong focus on Microsoft System Center products.
I am working as Hybrid Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Consultant in one of the most reputed Sweden based IT Company and been working on SCOM, SFB, OMS, VMware, Hyper-V, etc.
I have Master of Computer Applications degree with few Certifications which includes MCT, MCSE: Private Cloud and ITIL V3 Foundation.